Auschwitz 1 Photos

                                                                                                                                                                                    Photos of women prisoners taken before 1942 as means of identification. Records were kept of names, birth and death dates of each in accordance with the laws of the Third Reich. Later each prisoner was given a tatoo on her forearm as the method of identification. People selected for the gas chambers immediately on arrival were not registered in any fashion.

A group of Roma people being expelled from Occupied Poland soon after the beginning of the war.

The original crematorium  at Auschwitz 1 used for the disposal of people who died of diseases or who were executed. After the experiment of using Cyclon B to gas the prisoners held in "The Block of Death," the adjoining mortuary in this building was turned into the first of Auschwitz' eventual five gas chambers. It was considerably smaller than the other four which were later built at Auschwitz 2: Birkenau.

            The two ovens in the crematorium of Auschwitz 1.

      A group being  rounded up for transportation to Auschwitz.

Part of the square where prisoners were required to stand, sometimes for many hours and in all weathers for roll call. The wooden structure in the foreground was used for the public hanging of prisoners who were punished, for example, for trying to escape.

Crystals of Cyclon B, a pesticide for the extermination of lice, which was used in gas chambers after late 1941.

Sign now in one of the basement cells of the Block of Death where prisoners were tortured and sometimes deliberately starved to death.

Abandoned mugs and bowls found at Auschwitz when it was liberated by Soviet forces in 1945. Close to 100,000 prisoners had been hastily taken from the camp in a forced march from which few survived. These mugs and bowls had been used by prisoners to collect their food.

Shoes abandoned at Auschwitz, most of which were the shoes of people selected for immediate death on arrival. All of their clothes and belongings were sorted and sent to Germany for distribution.

Suitcase abandoned at Auschwitz. People gathered for transportation were told they could bring one suitcase each. Naturally people brought their most precious things. All were simply confiscated at the train ramp, sorted at a camp block commonly called "Canada" -- a place of good things. The valuables were taken for use by the SS.

           Leg braces and artificial limbs taken from prisoners.

     A boy arriving at Auschwitz with his family, awaiting selection.